Pick. Drop. Repeat

GIG WORKERS ARE OFTEN AT THE MERCY OF ALGORITHMIC MANAGEMENT PRACTICES THAT EXHIBIT BIAS AND NEGATIVELY IMPACT THEIR EARNINGS

- ANEES HUSSAIN

YOU'VE SEEN HIM. Through your peephole, standing outside your apartment at 11 PM, helmet and all, frantically scrolling his phone for the next order even before you have opened the door.

You've tipped him ₹20 or have forgotten to. You've tracked his dot or scooter icon with fancy ad banners on the app, and wondered why it had stopped moving. You've asked his name or have forgotten to. When you did ask, you didn't bother to remember.

Last week, while the debate around gig worker rights raged on social media, Atharv Singh, a 4th-year design student, sent a direct message on LinkedIn to Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal, describing his four months as a picker on Blinkit, managing his own college fees after his father had refused to support his education. Now, he was joining Zomato's design team. “Life really comes in full circle,” he wrote. Goyal replied with a heart emoji. Shared the screenshot on X. By morning, the post had thousands of reactions. It was a beautiful story. But also an anomaly.